(ANSA) - PRISTINA, OCT. 1 - Kosovo's president Hashim Thaci said he did not request any authorization to go to northern Kosovo last Saturday, and he will never ask for a permission to do so. ''Kosovo is a free, united, democratic and multiethnic country in which freedom of movement is guaranteed to all citizens, regardless of the technical difficulties of any given moment'', said Thaci, taken by the local media in Pristina. His visit on Saturday to Gazivode Lake, northern Kosovo, Serb-majority area, and the deployment in the same area of about a hundred armed forces of Kosovo special forces to ensure Thaci's safety, has triggered a wave of protests and reactions from Belgrade's leadership, who spoke of 'provocation' and 'violation of the Brussels agreements', under which special forces must refrain from operations in the north inhabited by the Serbs.

''On Saturday, just like I did many times before this visit, I went to northern Kosovo, and I will continue to do so whenever I deem it necessary, I have never asked and will never ask for permission in the future. The citizens of Kosovo have the right to move freely in the whole country'', said Thaci.